//po4a: entry man manual
////
Copyright (c) 1989, 1993
	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
   must display the following acknowledgement:
	This product includes software developed by the University of
	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
   without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

    @(#)write.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
////
= write(1)
:doctype: manpage
:man manual: User Commands
:man source: util-linux {release-version}
:page-layout: base
:command: write

== NAME

write - send a message to another user

*write* _user_ [_ttyname_]

== DESCRIPTION

*write* allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from your terminal to theirs.

When you run the *write* command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form:

....
Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ...
....

Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's terminal. If the other user wants to reply, they must run *write* as well.

When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. The other user will see the message *EOF* indicating that the conversation is over.

You can prevent people (other than the superuser) from writing to you with the *mesg*(1) command. Some commands, for example *nroff*(1) and *pr*(1), may automatically disallow writing, so that the output they produce isn't overwritten.

If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, you can specify which terminal to write to by giving the terminal name as the second operand to the *write* command. Alternatively, you can let *write* select one of the terminals - it will pick the one with the shortest idle time. This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from home, the message will go to the right place.

The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string _-o_, either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the other person's turn to talk. The string _oo_ means that the person believes the conversation to be over.

== OPTIONS

include::man-common/help-version.adoc[]

== HISTORY

A *write* command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

== SEE ALSO

*mesg*(1),
*talk*(1),
*who*(1)

include::man-common/bugreports.adoc[]

include::man-common/footer.adoc[]

ifdef::translation[]
include::man-common/translation.adoc[]
endif::[]
